Batcombe Down

Batcombe is a small straggling village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated 12 miles (19 km) north-west of Dorchester below the northern scarp slope of the Dorset Downs. The name Batcombe derives from the Old English Bata, a man's name, and cumb, meaning valley. In 1201 it was known as Batecumbe. The local travel links are located 3 miles (4.8 km) from the village to Chetnole railway station and 31 miles (50 km) to Bournemouth Airport. The main road running through the village is Stile Way. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of the civil parish was 120. The civil parish is served by High Stoy Parish Council, which also covers Hermitage and Hilfield parishes.

Hilfield is a small scattered village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, situated under the scarp face of the Dorset Downs 7 miles (11 km) south of Sherborne. Dorset County Council's 2013 estimate of the parish population is 50. Hilfield parish church, dedicated to St Nicholas, has late 13th- or early 14th-century origins, though the present building dates from the 15th century and was substantially altered in 1848. It has wooden parquet flooring, notable carved bench ends—possibly moved from Cerne Abbey and thought to be Flemish but of unknown age—and the pulpit and seating have 16th-century panelling. It is one of the smallest English parish churches. Hilfield Friary is a faith-based community centred on Franciscan brothers of the Anglican Society of St Francis. The Hilfield community is made up of Franciscan Brothers and others who join them; the community encourages environmental sustainability within the Franciscan ethos of peace, faith and justice.

Cerne, Totcombe and Modbury Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England. Some of its tithings and parishes were exclaves which indicates that its ancient manors were likely the possessions of one related family who received them during the reign of William the Conqueror. The hundred contained the following parishes: Cattistock Cerne Abbas Godmanstone Hilfield Hawkchurch (part) (transferred to Devon 1896) Nether Cerne West Compton

Redford is a hamlet about equidistant from Batcombe, Melbury Bubb and Woolcombe in the county of Dorset in South West England. It lies within the Dorset unitary authority administrative area of the county, eight miles south of the town of Sherborne.

Telegraph Hill (267 metres, 876 feet high) is a hill about 1 mile northwest of Minterne Magna and about 10 miles north of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, England. Its prominence qualifies it as one of the so-called HuMPs. There is a transmission mast about 600 metres away on the spur to the northeast at High Stoy. Writing in 1906, Sir Frederick Treves described High Stoy as "the most engaging of all Dorset hills—a hill of 800 feet, made up of green slopes, a cliff, and a mantle of trees." Opposite High Stoy is Dogbury Hill, another bastion of the chalk escarpment. A Franciscan friary lies in the hamlet of Hilfield beneath the hill to the west.

Frome St Quintin is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset, southern England, situated approximately 11 miles (18 km) northwest of the county town of Dorchester. It is located on an outcrop of greensand near the head of the Frome valley, among the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The area features naturally occurring springs, and the first habitation likely dates back to the Roman era. The parish church dates back to the 13th century. Just over 0.5 miles (0.80 km) west of the village, within Cattistock, lies Chantmarle, a 15th-century manor house with later additions. The civil parish has a group parish council, Frome Valley Parish Council, together with neighbouring Cattistock and Chilfrome parishes.

Hermitage is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale under the scarp of the Dorset Downs, 6 miles (9.7 km) south of the town of Sherborne. Dorset County Council's latest (2013) estimate of the parish population is 70.Augustinian monks once had a hermitage here (also known as the Blackmoor Priory Hermitage), whence the name of the village, but they abandoned the site in the 14th or 15th century. The Lady's Well which they used still remains, on the edge of woodland a short distance from the village.

Leigh ( ) is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) south-southwest of Sherborne. It is known as the site of a former Miz Maze. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 480.

Holywell is a hamlet in Dorset, England, located on the A37 roughly midway between Yeovil and Dorchester. A tributary of the River Frome passes through the hamlet. A number of Bronze Age objects have been discovered locally and are now in the British Museum. From 1857 to 1966 Holywell was served by Evershot Station on the Heart of Wessex Line, which was named after the nearby village to the west.

Sydling St Nicholas is a village and civil parish in Dorset within southwest England. The parish is 5 to 9 miles (8.0 to 14.5 km) northwest of the county town Dorchester and covers most of the valley of the small Sydling Water in the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The parish has an area of 2,075 hectares (5,130 acres) and includes the hamlet of Up Sydling in the north. Sydling St Nicholas village was recorded in the 11th-century Domesday Book, though evidence of much earlier human occupation has been found in the surrounding area. Over the last thousand years the village has been owned by Milton Abbey, Sir Francis Walsingham and Winchester College. The whole of Sydling St Nicholas parish lies within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In addition, parts of the parish lie within the Hog Cliff National Nature Reserve and the Cerne and Sydling Downs Special Area of Conservation. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 414.

Evershot was a railway station in the county of Dorset in England. Served by trains on what is now known as the Heart of Wessex Line, it was two miles from the village it served, at Holywell, just south of Evershot Tunnel. The station consisted of two platforms, a small goods yard and signal box. It had a station building on the up platform.

Melbury Bubb is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in South West England, situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of the town of Sherborne. It is sited on Cornbrash limestone beneath the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The A37 trunk road between Dorchester and Bristol passes about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the west, on the other side of Bubb Down Hill. This hill used to be the site of a beacon. The first half of the village name derives from maele and burh—Old English for "multi-coloured" and "fortified place"—and the second half is a manorial name which derives either from a Saxon resident named 'Bubba' or from medieval lords of the manor. Dorset County Council's latest (2013) estimate of the parish population is 40. The parish church of St Mary has a 15th-century tower but the rest of the building was largely rebuilt in a 19th-century restoration. Its font however is carved out of the column of an upturned Saxon cross; it is elaborately carved, although the carvings are upside-down. Families were often noted as owners in books, for instance: the Blain family recently sold the property, despite occupying it for just shy of 100 years.